3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

[professor95]

professor95 wrote:
EDIT ADDED 45/5/2013- When this thread started in March of 2005, I never expected to see it survive this long or amass the quantity of information that has been shared here.

In the eight year run of this thread we have amassed almost 10,000 postings and surpassed a million views. This creates somewhat of a dilemma for anyone who has just discovered the forum.

Since the amount of information is virtually overwhelming, I suggest you set your preferences for this thread to read "newest first" and then begin to page backwards.

What you will find in these pages is a wealth of info on virtually any make or model of Chinese manufactured synchronous (non-inverter) generator in the 3,000 watt performance class. Info will include how to rewire series coils to parallel to obtain maximum wattage from a single 120 volt outlet. Tips on further reducing sound levels, how to care for these generators, which ones are "RV ready" and provide the best overall performance for the dollar invested. Which companies NOT to deal with, where the best prices are, how to safely wire the generator into a home or RV, how to check your RV for electrical faults, sources for generator accessories, which 20/30 adapters are safe to use and which are not. How to convert a gasoline generator to propane or NG. This is only the beginning. The forum has a life of its own with the focus sub-topic switching frequently. Still, the main topic of utilizing the amazing, inexpensive Chinese gensets is always there. The amount of creativity and innovation presented in these pages is indicative of the talents shared in the diverse backgrounds of the folks who make up our combined RV community.

Many of the original brands and models of Chinese gensets mentioned in the introduction and early pages of the thread have since disappeared. New EPA and CARB emissions requirements, company bonds assuring the emissions warranty will be honored even if the company goes out of business, and fierce competition in the industry have changed the playing field. Champion Power Equipment has become the apparent "trophy team" providing an ever expanding retail outlet, an ample parts supply, a strong warranty and excellent customer service. CPE has continued to improve their product and now offers a new model (#46538) with exclusive convenience, safety and performance features aimed at the RV market. Big names like Cummins/Onan, Honda and Generac all now have Chinese built open frame synchronous gensets available. Ironically, the prices often found on these gensets has not significantly changed during the past eight years - even with the devaluation of the American Dollar and new EPA/CARB requirements.

I also encourage you to use the search function and even the advanced search options to find information. Key works such as "rewiring", "PowerPro", "Champion", "Onan Homesite", "Duropower", "ETQ", "Jiung Dong or JD", "Tractor Supply", "Costco", "Lowe's" and "Home Depot" are all examples of keywords that will give you specific information on different models being sold by retailers today.

Or, you can fill your glass with your favorite beverage (keep more close by - maybe some munchies as well :D, sit back at your computer, tell your wife (or significant other) that you will see her in the morning and spend the next 10 or so hours reading through the postings.

No one on the forum gets mad if you ask a question that is a repeat. Please do not hesitate to post to the forum. All questions are considered important and those active on the forum will do their best to respond with a valid answer.

Also note we are not out to knock the Honda, Yamaha, Kipor or other brands of high end digital gensets. We recognize the quality of these products and their suitability for quite, efficient RV use. But, there is a flood of reliable, inexpensive and comparatively lower cost gensets coming out of China that are excellent alternative choices for the RVer wanting power to run an air conditioner, microwave, etc. without excessive noise or breaking the budget.

Oh, one last thing. The folks on this forum are true gentlemen. We do not flame one another or the product discussed - period. Ugly contributors usually have their comments and remarks ignored by our masses. It is not a forum to start arguments to obtain a clear win. We do disagree on many issues, but we have all agreed to do that in a respectable manner.

We now have the introduction of more and more inverter gensets. There is a rather extensive thread named "The Official Unofficial Champion 2000i Generator" on this forum. Today, I added info on the new Champion 3100i inverter genset. Discussion on this product may get moved to its own thread at a later date.

Many have looked upon this thread with distain saying Chinese is cheap and doomed to failure. I remember saying exactly the same thing about Japanese products a few decades back. But, over the past eight years the track record for Chinese built generators has shown otherwise.

Please, join us in a fascinating journey down the Chinese built genset road of knowledge.

This is the question I posted that got it all started back in March 2005.......

Randy

For a little over a month now, I have been somewhat intrigued by the availability of a 3000 watt, 6.5 HP generator at Pep Boys and Northern Tool for under $300.00. The engine on this generator looks identical to a Honda 6.5 HP OHV engine. Knowing that the Chinese have become very adept at “cloning” reputable technologies from other manufacturers, I was not surprised at the similarities. Neither store could give me any information on the generator nor did they have a “running” display model.

I have done a little research. This is what I have discovered:

Many of these generators are imported by ELIM International (www.eliminternational.com) out of Buffalo, New York from Jiung Manufacturing in China. (The unit at Northern is identical but carries the JIUNG name.)

The engines are indeed a Chinese knockoff of the popular 6.5 HP 196cc Honda Engine. “Supposedly” Honda has licensed the engine technology to the Chinese manufacturer of the product.

The Chinese company that makes the ELM3000 generators is a rather large, diverse, long-standing company with a reputation for “above average quality” Chinese made products (Jiung Manufacturing). There are many more Chinese companies making almost identical gensets.

The generators at PepBoys do have a six month limited warranty. But, it is only on the engine (not the generator) and requires paying for shipping to and from Buffalo. Probably not a very practical thing to do if you have warranty issues.

ELIM does supply replacement parts (a PDF parts manual is available on the ELIM web site). No prices are given for replacement parts nor is there an “availability listing”.

The generator head itself is a brushless design. The only really significant wear parts in the generator are the bearings – most likely universally available.

The published dB rating is 67 at 23 feet. This is “reasonably” quite for a generator of this size as most comparabl.... The 67 dB rating is the same as Honda gives their 3000 watt CycloInverter with a “look alike” eng...

[alltenofus]

Another posting question. How do you get the box around the quote on the post you are replying to??? I used the Quote function and it posted the quote but how do you get the box to show its a quote? Is there a help site to learn how to navigate all this? Also- how do you add the nice pictures and info about yourself at the bottom of the post?

[alltenofus]

[

Here where I live in NC their partner store would be Advance Auto Parts. So I guess with this in mind and what others here have said about this generator I probably will order one next week.


I talked to PartsAmerica a couple of months ago and they could not provide the Champion to Advance Auto. The other three partners of the alliance can get them. If this has changed thats great.

Also on the Pep Boys model questions. When I bought my UST at a Denton Tx store a couple of months back they had two different generators under the same store code number. One was the UST wired for 25 amps on one three prong twist plug (male plug was in the box- had to make a pigtail adapter) the other was a JD with the 240 volt four prong plug with no switches for changover to full power 120. From other comments in this thread they must have other brands at different times/different stores. So no matter what the ad says you won't know till you go to the store.

If you are putting a generator in a box on your TT as in some of the recent postings---- be sure you have a functioning CO detector in your TT. CO from combustion engines can be very sneaky and some very unusual fatalities have happened. I know of one case where a man died from using a power washer in an underground parking garage. With that much air volume you'd think it couldn't happen - but its documented. Several fatalities have happened on houseboats - swimmers holding onto the swim ladder at the rear passed out and then drowned. Boat engines were off- but the generators exhausted into the prop well right by the swim ladders.

[MrWizard]

Breambuster wrote:
I am also interested in the new rv-ready champion after reading the positive reviews. Do they have the standard twist receptacle along with the rv female receptacle? Thanks

that unit has (3) recepticles on the front

a 4 prong twist lock, the 3 prong RV outlet and a 20 amp 120 recepticle ( the one where one blade is "Teed" )

it has a 120/240 switch, and the voltmeter

[Breambuster]

I am also interested in the new rv-ready champion after reading the positive reviews. Do they have the standard twist receptacle along with the rv female receptacle? Thanks

[Walrus127]

Well I got my refund from ELIM today:B After my last ordeal with ELIM I am a little nervous about ordering another generator on the net. I read what the Professor posted about the warranty question he asked. I am going to share what Parts America told me when I asked about there warranty. Here is the question I email them:

I have a warranty question. I ordered a generator from a company on the Internet that did not work. After emails, phone calls and numerous part changes, they are finally going to refund my money. I am looking at the Champion Generator part number C46540 on your web site. My question is how do you handle the warranty if the product does not function properly? The website says it has a 1 year limited warranty. Guess I'm a little gunshy right now. Thanks for your help.

Well here is the reply I received:

Dear Keith,

Thank you for visiting PartsAmerica.com and taking the time to contact us. Our local partner stores can either initiate a refund or an exchange.
If you have any further questions please contact us via e-mail or toll free at 877.808.0698. Thank you.

Sincerely,


Carlos
Customer Service Team
PartsAmerica
(877) 808-0698 ext 3895

Here where I live in NC their partner store would be Advance Auto Parts. So I guess with this in mind and what others here have said about this generator I probably will order one next week.

[TeamSlacker]

rewind a few pages to whoever commented on pulling the fan shroud and fan off to 'glue' the fan to the flywheel. I tried it the other day and made a noticable difference. I should have taken sound dB readings before and after, but i noticed it. Before it had a bit of a 'rattle' sound from the recoil side, after, it's gone 🙂 It's quick easy and a simple fix, three bolts get the recoil off, and 4 more get the shroud off, grab the plastic fan and wiggle, you'll see. I ended up using a bead of mopar tranny pan ATV between the fan and flywheel, just becuase I had half used tube handy to use up.

[durasmack]

I was concerned that the power wasnt clean enough for a laptop. there was a warning about that in the book for mine. I use laptop off inverter if im going to use it.

[MrWizard]

Champion 'RV ready' 3500 watt, Gas Consumpion test

1.2 gals

6hr 26 min

mostly this was battery charging, with normal daily water pump useage

15 min of microwave cooking

and about 1hr of laptop computer time, computer was plugged into AC wiring NOT inverter, I wanted max current into batteries

I think this is very respectible,

the unit is listed as 12hrs on 3 gals, at 50% / 1750 watts = 3hrs per gal ( quoted useage )

I wasn't using that much power, and I almost cut that figure in halve for almost double the run time per gal

1.2 gal/6hr 26 mim = 5hr 20 min for 1 gal

[CKAYAKER]

For some premade pigtails, you may want to check out Ohiokipor.com. You can special order for about $30. Thought this may help for someone looking for a custom pigtail.

[Tonka_Truck]

Thanks for the comment on re-wiring, I had missed the head changes first time around, thought the three leg instead of 4 took care of it.

[professor95]

camperdave wrote:
But keep in mind you will only be pulling 1/2 the avaliable power out of the generator anytime you use the L14-30 plug at 120v (unless you've rewired your generator head).

Read this several times if you are thinking about using the twistlock "as is". Rewiring the outlet as a minimum WILL be necessary to obtain full wattage at 120 volts.

[camperdave]

Tonka Truck wrote:
Somewhere way back they were talking about using only three prongs of a four prong outlet. The three prong picks up the 115v while the 4 prong picks up 220v. I'm thinking that the Cabela plug might twist lock into the outlet but only get 115v with full amps the Genset can do. Professor, do you know which is which on the NEMA plugs?

They are different plugs. The generators have the NEMA L14-30 (120/240v 4 prong receptacle), the adapter you are looking at is a L5-30 (three prong). The L5-30 is not compatible with the L14-30, they are different prong configurations.

fwiw, I looked around quite a bit and could not find any pre-made L14-30p to TT-30r adapters anywhere. You could make one easily, buy a TT-30r on a cord for $7 and wire on a male L14-30 (around $20 at any hardware store).

But keep in mind you will only be pulling 1/2 the avaliable power out of the generator anytime you use the L14-30 plug at 120v (unless you've rewired your generator head).

[Tonka_Truck]

Somewhere way back they were talking about using only three prongs of a four prong outlet. The three prong picks up the 115v while the 4 prong picks up 220v. I'm thinking that the Cabela plug might twist lock into the outlet but only get 115v with full amps the Genset can do. Professor, do you know which is which on the NEMA plugs?

[mokanmikey]

Tonka Truck wrote:
Regarding the RV plug to three prong twist lock Genset panel.

Cabela's Spring Master Catalog has it on page 179 for 21.99 and calls it a RV adapter part number CG 52-1613-066, converts a L5-30 locking receptacle for three prong RV use. The L5-30 may be the twist lock on a Honda Parallel kit.

Says it plugs into a Single 30 A 125V NEMA L-5-30 and the RV cord plugs into it.

Is that the same plug as a Champion or others on the twist lock? I don't know but it sounds good....

The older Champion is a NEMA L14-30 plug so I don't think it will work.
Thanks for following up on that for me!
Mike

[Tonka_Truck]

Regarding the RV plug to three prong twist lock Genset panel.

Cabela's Spring Master Catalog has it on page 179 for 21.99 and calls it a RV adapter part number CG 52-1613-066, converts a L5-30 locking receptacle for three prong RV use. The L5-30 may be the twist lock on a Honda Parallel kit.

Says it plugs into a Single 30 A 125V NEMA L-5-30 and the RV cord plugs into it.

Is that the same plug as a Champion or others on the twist lock? I don't know but it sounds good....